Chapter Nineteenth: Negotiation is Fought For

  (Seeking collection! Past viewers, please collect it along the way. Fattening up before killing is also possible. Newcomers are not easy.)

  Liu Biao was indeed a sly and cunning old man.

  At that time, he first relied on Zhang Xiu to garrison Nan Yang and resist Cao Cao in the north. Later, when Liu Bei came to join him, he arranged for Liu Bei to be stationed in Xin Ye, continuing to resist Cao Cao on his behalf.

  These two men guarded the gate for him, and in over a decade, Liu Biao had hardly ever clashed with Cao Cao head-on.

  Zhang Huan was a member of the Western Liang warlords, with tens of thousands of elite Western Liang soldiers under his command. His uncle also held the title of Chariot and Cavalry General conferred by the Han court.

  As for Liu Bei, it's even more unnecessary to mention that when he came to join Liu Biao, he was already the famous Uncle Liu known throughout the land.

  And as for Yuan Shao now, although he still holds the title of General of Yuan Shao's army, in terms of reputation, status and strength, he is no match for those two people.

  Liu Biao held a hundred thousand strong troops, how could he obediently open the door to welcome guests and form an alliance with him who had only six thousand soldiers.

  So Yan Liang decided to use military force first and then diplomacy, to fight a battle to show Liu Biao his strength, and then force him to the negotiating table.

  Xu You still did not understand Yan Liang's intention, and his expression was momentarily bewildered.

  "We won't fight a battle, let Liu Biao see how powerful I am. Can he put aside his pride and form an alliance with me?" Yan Liang explained.

  Xu You suddenly enlightened, eyes showing a respectful and admiring expression, praised: "I didn't expect the general to think so thoroughly, hmm, it seems this battle is unavoidable."

  "Not only must we win, but we must win beautifully, so that Liu Biao is convinced and comes to negotiate with me of his own accord." Yan Liang's tone was bold and heroic, his eyes gleaming with a fierce and murderous aura.

  "We must fight beautifully... In that case, we'd better come up with a good plan..."

  Xu You stroked his beard and muttered to himself, and before long, the narrow slit of his eyes flashed with a hint of slyness.

  Thirty miles away, an army of ten thousand men is marching rapidly.

  Under that large banner with the character "Zhang", a general with thick eyebrows and an extremely cold expression stood in front, it was Wen Ping, a general under Liu Biao's command.

  A horseman came galloping over, and before he had even approached, the middle-aged Confucian scholar shouted: "General Wen, quickly order the entire army to halt its advance and set up camp on the spot."

  Wen Ping turned his head and saw that the newcomer was none other than Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang, the most trusted advisors under Liu Biao.

  "We must rush ahead of the enemy and occupy the advantageous terrain in front. How can we set up camp here?" Wen Ping asked.

  Kuai Yue reined in his horse and said loudly, "Yan Liang is a general under Yuan Benchu. This time he came forward, it's not necessarily to be an enemy of ours. Have you forgotten what our lord entrusted us with? We must not provoke conflict with the other side without authorization."

  "But..."

  Wen Ping wanted to speak again, but Kuai Yue waved his hand to interrupt him, saying displeased: "The lord ordered me to be the supervisor of the army, you only need to listen to orders, why ask more questions."

  Kuai Yue's commanding tone made Wen Ping feel very uncomfortable, but he had no choice but to obey.

  At that time, Liu Biao relied on the support of two big families, Kuai and Cai, to enter Jingzhou alone, in order to have today's foundation.

  Liu Biao repaid the peach with the plum, and also gave full trust to the Kuai family. The military and political power of Jingzhou were almost all given to Kuai Yue and Cai Mao.

  Wen Ping was just a minor warlord from Jingzhou, although he was the nominal commander of this army, the actual command was in the hands of the supervisor Kuai Yue.

  Helpless, Wen Ping had no choice but to order his troops to set up camp on the spot.

  After several hours, Wen Pin received a report from the scout, saying that Yan Liang's army had stopped advancing twenty miles away and was also setting up camp.

  Immediately afterwards, Yan Liang's army sent an envoy, claiming to be on behalf of Yuan Shao, to form an alliance with Liu Jing and jointly attack Cao Cao.

  In the big account, Kuai Yue looked at Yan Liang's handwriting and smiled: "Indeed, it did not come out of my expectation. Yan Liang came this time without any hostile intention."

  Wen Ping, however, was suspicious and said: "Yan Liang first captured Yuzhou, then defeated Cao Ren, but instead of taking advantage of his victory to attack the capital, he abandoned Yuzhou and came to Jingzhou. I think this move is very suspicious, so it's better not to trust him lightly."

  "Yan Liang is just a general under Yuan Shu's command, even if he has some ability and defeated Cao Ren, what other tricks can he play? Does he dare to rely on his few thousand isolated troops to attack my Jingzhou?"

  Kuai Yue sneered, his tone full of disdain, as if he found Wen Ping's words ridiculous.

  Wen Ping's eyebrows furrowed, with bitter water in his heart, but he could only silently swallow it down.

  At sunset, Yan Liang's army set up camp.

  Inside the Chinese army's headquarters, Yan Liang was staring at the map of Jingzhou on the table, planning a strategy.

  On that map, Jingzhou's mountains and rivers are depicted in great detail, every single place is drawn clearly, and this map was indeed a masterpiece created by Xu You.

  Xu You was from Nanyang, and Nanyang belonged to Jingzhou.

  Not long ago, when Xu You decided to board Yan Liang's "pirate ship", he spent a night drawing this map of his hometown.

  In all warfare, the key is to know the heavens and the earth.

  Most of the time, weather is not so easy to predict, and terrain becomes the most important objective condition.

  Yan Liang looked at the map of the roads leading to Xin Ye, his mouth slightly raised, and a plan secretly formed in his heart.

  The curtain was lifted, and Xu You entered excitedly.

  "General, my plan has worked, now it's time for you to take action."

  Xu You smiled with satisfaction and handed a letter to Yan Liang.

  Yan Liang took over the letter and looked at it, a faint cold smile also appeared on his face.

  That was Kuai Yue's reply, the letter was very polite, expressing Kuai Yue's friendliness and stating that he had sent someone to rush back to Xiangyang to inform Liu Biao about Yan Liang's arrival for an alliance. Moreover, in order to show his friendliness, he would also send someone later to bring wine and food as a host's courtesy.

  "The Jingzhou army has not occupied a favorable terrain, and now they are still sending people to comfort the troops. It is clear that Kuai Yue has been misled by the general's letter, thinking that the general can now lead a light cavalry to take a shortcut and capture Xinye directly."

  Xu You stroked his beard and said with great satisfaction.

  The northeast of Xinye has many mountains, with several small roads leading to Xinye. Xu You was familiar with the terrain in this area as he had traveled here when he was young.

  At this time, Kuai Yue and his more than 10,000 Jingzhou troops are already facing off against Yan Liang here, so the city of Xin Ye must be empty. Moreover, Kuai Yue has been deceived by Yan Liang's so-called "alliance" under the banner of Yuan Shao, and most likely relaxed his guard. This is exactly the perfect opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Xin Ye.

  Looking at Xu You's determined appearance, Yan Liang said calmly: "Sir's plan is indeed clever, but the opponent is not a fool, isn't sir afraid of being seen through by the other side?"

  "Jia Xu is still a mystery to me, he's good at general ideas but lacks clever strategies. If he can see through my plan, that would be strange." Xun Yu snorted disdainfully.

  Xu You's analysis of Kuai Yue was spot on, and Yan Liang also agreed.

  In official history, Liu Biao came alone to Jingzhou and it was only by relying on Kuai Yue's plan that he was able to pacify Jingzhou.

  In the novel, Kuai Yue's performance is nothing more than plotting against Liu Bei and persuading Liu Biao to surrender to Cao Cao, with no other notable performances.

  If it is said that Kuai Yue can see through Xu You's plan, Yan Liang really does not quite believe it.

  However, Yan Liang's concern was not this person.

  "Sir, you only remember Guo Yue, but forgot about Wen Zhongye in the Jingzhou army." Yan Liang said.

  "What's your surname?"

  Xu You's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression somewhat dazed, as if he couldn't think of who this person was for a moment.

  After a moment of recollection, Xu You suddenly said: "You're referring to that general named Wen Ping, I seem to have heard that Liu Biao has such a person under his command. He's just an unknown martial artist, even Kuai Yue couldn't see through my plan, let alone him."

  Xu You's words were extremely contemptuous, completely not putting Wen Ping in his eyes.

  Yan Liang sneered in his heart, thinking that you wouldn't know that Wen Ping was a gold nugget buried in the sand, only temporarily without a master to appreciate him and unable to display his brilliance.

  "Sir, never underestimate a martial artist. Don't forget, I, Yan Liang, am also a martial artist." Yan Liang's mouth corners slightly curved upwards.

  Xu You was taken aback, and hastily forced a smile, saying: "I, Xu, have misspoken for the moment, I hope General will forgive me. What I meant to say is that Wen Ping is just an unknown person, how can he be mentioned in the same breath as General?"

  Yan Liang's magnanimity would hardly blame Xu You for this small matter.

  He shifted his gaze to the map and fell into thought.

  Xu You did not dare to make another sound, and carefully observed Yan Liang's expression. The calmness that hid his emotions made him feel even more unfathomable.

  Suddenly, Yan Liang pointed at a corner of the map and asked: "Is this terrain clear, sir?"

  Xu You looked carefully and said, "Here is the intersection of the main road leading to XinYe and several small roads, the terrain has become relatively open."

  Wow!

  The tiger's fist heavily hit the corner, Yan Liang's sword eyebrows were like blades, coldly saying: "It's right here, I'll give Liu Bei a good lesson right here, let him experience the severity of Yan Liang."